At Second Sight
by Scarlett Hauser
Summary: FINISHED...I think! Epilogue just added, taking place at end of MASS! My version of how Duke and Scarlett met and how their relationship came to be while on the Joe team. A pretoon story.
1. Drink Man

"At Second Sight" fic by Scarlett Hauser Chapter 1: "Drink Man"  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to GIJOE, Devil's Due, Hasbro, and Marvel and all the usual disclaimers. I do not own any of the G.I. Joe or Cobra characters, blah blah blah. The only things I own are the figments of my demented imagination.  
  
Rated R - mainly for foul language, violence and adult situations.  
  
*******************  
  
The first female to be recruited to the new G.I. Joe team, what a distinction!  
  
Code Name: SCARLETT  
  
Primary Military Specialty: Intelligence  
  
Secondary Military Specialty: CLASSIFIED  
  
Grade: E-5  
  
Sergeant Shana M. O'Hara had just been assigned to a new special missions forces team: code name G.I. Joe. Hand picked by Colonel Abernathy himself, first in command - code name Hawk. As a member of the new elite anti- terrorist task force, she would have the privilege of having access to the latest technologies and state of the art advanced artillery and military equipment that even regular Army didn't have. But then again, the kind of terrorists they would be up against had weapons far superior to regular Army. Their primary enemy: the new Cobra Command.  
  
Sergeant O'Hara would also be the first female to fight in combat in the new war against Cobra.  
  
She had flown into the nearby city the evening before reporting for duty at G.I. Joe headquarters, and after trying to settle into her hotel room but still restless, decided to visit a nearby bar to get a drink and unwind from her long flight. She walked into the bar in her civilian clothes and took a seat at the bar and ordered a martini. As she quietly enjoyed her drink by herself she contemplated the new phase in her life that was about to start and the rigorous training she had been through to get to this point: Advanced Infantry Training, Ranger School, Covert-Ops School, Marine Sniper School, Special Air Service School, and Marine Tae Kwan Do Symposium just to name a few, not to mention the various weaponry she was a qualified expert in using. Though she really considered her training to have started at age 9 at her father's dojo in Atlanta, receiving her black belt at age 15. Martial arts seemed to be in the O'Hara blood, at least for her father and three brothers.  
  
While she sorted out her thoughts her eyes automatically scanned the room, sizing up every patron in there. It was just part of her defense mechanism and training, which was set to work on autopilot by now. Several men in casual dress playing pool, even a few couples dancing on the small dance floor. A quaint watering hole, obviously a local hangout. One small group of men caught her attention, or actually one man in the group to be precise: Mister Tall Blonde and Handsome. His blue eyes were piercing even from across the room. She couldn't help but notice him; he had a confident, commanding presence about him. She turned her attention away when she realized those piercing blues were looking her way.  
  
As she finished her martini the bartender promptly put another in front of her. "I'm sorry but I didn't order another one," she told the bartender.  
  
"You didn't, but HE did," said the bartender, pointing behind her. She snapped around to find him smiling behind her: Mister Tall Blonde and Handsome! Dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt that was almost too tight to accommodate his large muscles. He was built like a football player. But she could still take him if necessary, she thought to herself as she quickly sized him up and determined his weak points.  
  
"Thank you, Drink Man," she said to the man behind her. "So tell me about yourself."  
  
"I want to be the father of your children," he told her understatedly as he handed her drink to her.  
  
"You don't even know me!" She laughed at him and his charmingly awful pick- up line.  
  
"Yeah, how fucked up is that?" he smoothly replied.  
  
"Very," she replied. "But just as long as you know."  
  
"Knowing is half the battle," he quipped. She rolled her eyes at him. A smooth talker AND a comedian, she thought as she wondered what other surprises he had. "So does she have a name?" he asked.  
  
"Who?" She asked coyly.  
  
"The mother of my children," he casually replied with a smile as he took another sip of his beer. "You."  
  
She laughed at him again, and she could feel she was about to start blushing. She couldn't tell if he seriously believed his pick-up line would work or if he was going out of his way to be so corny. Whatever it was, he had an incredibly charming way about it and she found herself strangely attracted to him despite herself.  
  
"You don't quit, do you Drink Man?"  
  
"It's Conrad," he told her as he held his hand out to her.  
  
"Shana," she said as she gently shook his hand.  
  
"So what brings you here, Miss Shana?"  
  
"An airplane."  
  
"Smart-ass," he chuckled at her.  
  
"Well I'd rather be a smart-ass than a dumb-ass," she replied with a smile, then decided to toy with him some more. "Actually I'm in town because our team is playing here tomorrow. I'm a cheerleader for the Atlanta Falcons," she told him with a straight face.  
  
"I don't believe you. You're too gorgeous to be a cheerleader," he told her matter-of-factly. She almost spit out her martini.  
  
"Oh you are GOOD!" She laughed heartily as she stood up from her barstool and set down the bartender's tip on the bar. "But I really should get going now."  
  
"You're leaving so soon? Don't I at least get one dance with you?" He raised one eyebrow at her.  
  
"Sorry Drink Man, but I have an early day tomorrow," she told him as he walked with her to the door.  
  
"Well, when will I see you again, gorgeous?" He asked her as he helped her into her jacket. She pulled her long red hair out from underneath the jacket, casually tossing it in his direction.  
  
"Try wishing upon a star!" She called out as she rushed out the door, leaving him behind in her dust. She almost felt bad for brushing the guy off, but what was she going to do? Strike up a new romance? Date him? Relationships are tough enough to maintain without her military element thrown into the mix. And from what she had heard about G.I. Joe, it was even discouraged: personal attachments. What was the point of trying? She would be away on dangerous missions most of the time anyway. What guy could possibly understand that? And one-night stands weren't her style. She couldn't deny how drawn she was to him, and not just because of his looks but also his confident demeanor, wit and charm. Unfortunately he also seemed like the kind of man she could fall hard for. No, it was best to cut her losses now. She went back to her hotel room alone to try to get some sleep. Tomorrow would be the first day of the rest of her new life by becoming the newest and first female member of the Joe team.  
  
Her life as she knew it would never be the same again.  
  
******************* 


	2. Second Impressions

"Second Impressions"  
  
*******************  
  
The next morning Scarlett put on her Class A's and reported for duty at G.I. Joe headquarters. She was greeted and brought onto the base by the team's Ranger.  
  
"You must be Sergeant O'Hara," the black man in camos greeted her.  
  
"What gave me away?" She asked, knowing what the answer would be.  
  
"You're female," he told her, "first one we've had here so you're kinda hard to miss. Sergeant Wilkinson, but you can call me Stalker."  
  
"Pleased to meet you Stalker." She shook his extended hand.  
  
"Hawk wanted to greet you personally but he got called off base a few hours ago so I'll be takin' you to the second in command," Stalker informed her as he led her through the halls in the main building. "So you're the martial arts expert?"  
  
"Oh, you could say that I know enough to remind a boy of his manners," she said wryly.  
  
"I bet! So you're gonna be instructing hand-to-hand combat to the team, wow."  
  
"Wow you're going to learn hand-to-hand combat? Or wow you're learning from little ol' me?" She asked skeptically.  
  
"Both?" Stalker laughed. "Hey I ain't mad at you for bein' here, I'm on your side. Some of these boys could use a lesson in manners, as you put it."  
  
"I'll bet they could." Scarlett smiled to herself at Stalker's good nature. She doubted she would have as much luck with the rest of the Joe team. Women in any sort of military unit were less than revered. Well tough shit for them, she hadn't come this far to be scared off by some testosterone clique.  
  
"Here we are," he told her as they stopped in front of the C.O.'s office to check in. With her paperwork clutched in her hand, Scarlett walked into the office.  
  
*******************  
  
A well-built blonde man in a perfectly pressed and starched mustard colored shirt sat behind the desk with his head down as he made notes on his paperwork.  
  
"Sergeant O'Hara reporting for duty, sir," Scarlett declared as she stood front and center.  
  
"No need to call me "sir," O'Hara. I'm not an officer," he stated with slight annoyance. Shit! She cursed herself. She had assumed that the second in command would naturally be an officer. They always were.  
  
"I'm sorry. What would you like me to call you?" She couldn't help letting a slight annoyance of her own slip though for the attitude she was already receiving. He couldn't even be bothered to look up at her! Probably his passive-aggressive way of expressing his anti-female sentiment, she huffed to herself. After all, he has to have the alpha-male quality to him if he's in a command position. This was to be expected and something she was no stranger to.  
  
"I'm Master Sergeant Hauser but they call me Duke around here - ," he finally said as he looked up from his paperwork then stopped mid-sentence. Suddenly a pair of too-familiar piercing blues were looking directly at her. She thought her heart was going to stop.  
  
"Drink Man," she muttered under her breath as the events of the prior evening came flooding back to her. Great, she lamented to herself. The man she gave the brush-off to just happens to be her commanding officer! Sure, she would have a nice long career in G.I. Joe to look forward to - NOT. Male ego would surely thwart that possibility. She already hated him for it.  
  
"Look I - ," Duke started to state.  
  
"Wished upon a star?" Scarlett finished his sentence. She wasn't sure if she was trying to go down in flames or just using humor to try to lighten up the situation. Duke let out a soft chuckle.  
  
"Well it would seem so, wouldn't it? My mother always told me to be careful what I wished for," he quipped. Scarlett smiled out of the corner of her mouth. Underneath that strong confident exterior Drink Man was a nervous wreck!  
  
"Well here I am, what do you want to do with me now?" Scarlett bit her lower lip, silently kicking herself for how that sentence came out. Drink Man wasn't the only nervous wreck, though judging from the slightly flushed tone that now washed over his face, she probably didn't want him to answer her question. She didn't want to know that her C.O. was having depraved sexual fantasies about her. A smile turned up on his lips.  
  
"The first thing I want to do is welcome you to the Joe team," he stated more formally as he stood up and extended his hand out to her. Scarlett quietly breathed a sigh of relief as she shook his hand. Maybe he would erase the prior evening and give her a fresh start after all. Did his handshake grip linger just a moment longer than necessary? She wondered then chalked it up to her nerves in overdrive.  
  
"Come on, I'll give you a tour of the base," he said as he walked around the desk and showed her to the door. As she followed him into the hall he quipped to her, "So you're a Falcons Cheerleader in your spare time, huh?" He let out a small chuckle as Scarlett's face started to blush in embarrassment. She drew a deep breath.  
  
"Only when I'm not too preoccupied with raising your children," she retorted with a raised eyebrow. There, that ought to shut him up. She could hardly contain her smirk for it.  
  
"Touché," he replied. "So what's your weapon of choice, O'Hara?"  
  
"My hands."  
  
"Oh that's right, the Karate," he reminded himself out loud.  
  
Scarlett was quiet for a moment. "San Soo," she finally corrected him.  
  
"Come again?"  
  
Scarlett smiled out of the corner of her mouth. "Kung Fu San Soo, not Karate. It's my preferred fighting form," she clarified.  
  
"What's the difference?" He asked.  
  
"To put it in layman's terms, Karate is a defensive technique whereas San Soo is more offensive and aggressive. Haven't you ever heard that the best defense is a good offense? San Soo is the finest hand-to-hand combat ever devised by man, not to mention deadly," she explained. "Because of its effective, no-nonsense approach, San Soo is the latest fighting form preferred by many military and law enforcement agencies across the country."  
  
"And this is what you're here to train the new team for."  
  
"You got it."  
  
"Hmmm, interesting. I'll look forward to that."  
  
"To what? Me kicking your butt all over this base?" She taunted him. "Just because you're in command doesn't mean I'll go easy on you, Master Sergeant."  
  
"Good. I was hoping you wouldn't," he replied with a smirk. She looked sidelong at him, wondering what he meant by that. Maybe she was reading too much into his statement.  
  
*******************  
  
"Duke, take a look at this." Scarlett was working in the control room. "This just came in from Intelligence."  
  
"What do we have here?" Duke asked, walking up behind Scarlett to look at the screen.  
  
"Sebastian Bludd, former Major turned terrorist, assassin and soldier-for- hire. He's one of the most notorious mercenaries in the world and we have reason to believe he's working for Cobra now."  
  
"I've heard of this guy, a real creep. He'd kill his own mother just to sell tickets to her funeral. What else do you have?"  
  
"The Baroness Anastasia DeCobray, born to wealthy European aristocrats. Started in student radicalism and moved on to international terrorism. Real rich spoiled brat turned bad. She's believed to be working for Cobra now as well.  
  
"If they've joined the Cobra ranks then we've really got our work cut out for us. See what else you can dig up on them, Scarlett."  
  
"Will do. Oh and Duke, don't forget training starts tomorrow."  
  
"I wouldn't miss it for the world."  
  
*******************  
  
Scarlett lay awake in her quarters, staring at the ceiling. One advantage of being the only female on the team was that she didn't have to share her quarters with anyone. Quite a luxury indeed, it was the most privacy she had ever since she had enlisted in the Army years ago. And a two-bedroom suite to boot! Of course as more female members joined the G.I. Joe ranks over time she would eventually have to share this suite. But not right now. Right now she could be alone with her thoughts. She didn't know what to make of her C.O. aka "Drink Man." What was his story? And why did she care?  
  
"Stop it," she told herself as she tried to shut off her curiosity about the man.  
  
******************* 


	3. Training Day

"Training Day"  
  
*******************  
  
"I don't need no fightin' lessons from some overgrown Girl Scout," Clutch protested. As the resident male chauvinist pig, his teammates volunteered him for the training demonstration for their entertainment.  
  
"Why not, Clutch? It seems fitting since you throw a punch like a girl," Scarlett snarled at him. "Come on tough guy, show me and this team what you're made of."  
  
"Fine, but I'm twice your size so don't say I didn't warn 'ya." Clutch took a swing at Scarlett. She caught his wrist then as she towered him over the mat, used his weight as an anchor while she made a quick tap to his leg with her foot instead of following through with full force - after all this was a demonstration. "I just broke your leg. And haven't you heard? Size doesn't matter, which should be good news to you, right? Any other volunteers?" Scarlett asked as she released Clutch's wrist, dropping him on the mat. Duke confidently walked up. "Master Sergeant! Are you sure?"  
  
"I'm not exactly wet behind the ears in hand-to-hand combat. I can hold my own."  
  
"You're awfully cocky, Hauser. How did you get to be so cocky?"  
  
"Been there done that, O'Hara," he warned her as he grabbed her from behind. For a split second she was hesitant to fight him. His powerful muscular arms around her actually felt rather nice.  
  
"Well you didn't do it in MY class, Top," she retorted as she heel stomped his foot, causing him to involuntarily let go of her momentarily then she delivered a backwards elbow strike to the face followed by a swooping kick to the back of his legs, causing them to give out from underneath him.  
  
"Heh, think you can do that twice?" He challenged her as he got back up and charged towards her. She caught him by his wrists then placing one foot on his diaphragm, rolled onto her back and flipped him over her. She quickly jumped back on her feet.  
  
"I know I can. Care to make a friendly wager on it?"  
  
"What did you have in mind?" He asked as he recovered back on his feet.  
  
"If I win, I get to command a mission, AND I want to be one of the first to fly the new Skystrikers when they come in."  
  
"And if I win?"  
  
"If YOU win? Well," she said in a sultry tone as she pushed her hip out to the side and tossed her ponytail then lowered her voice so the others wouldn't hear, "you get to sleep with me." Dumbfounded by her proposition, Duke dropped his jaw and his guard - BAM! Scarlett immediately used the opportunity to side kick him in the chest, then as soon as he fell backwards to the ground she dropped her elbow down on his throat, stopping at just an inch above his windpipe for demonstration purposes. He lay on the ground, trying to catch his breath as he looked at the beautiful redhead hovering just inches above him. He couldn't help cracking a tiny smile at her.  
  
"You're dead," she told him, causing his smile to disappear. She stood back up then announced to the class, "All right, that's enough for today. You're dismissed." The Joes filed out of the gym then Scarlett noticed that Duke was still on the ground where she left him. She walked over to him and saw that he was still trying to catch his breath. It was fairly common to need several minutes to recompose after a kick like that.  
  
"Need a hoist, Top?" She extended her hand to help him back up. He reached up for her offered hand and yanked her down to the ground then rolled her over, pinning her arms and legs down.  
  
"Ungh! You stinker!"  
  
"A Cobra soldier has just overpowered you. Now what are you gonna do?" Duke challenged her. She quickly straightened one arm above her head while simultaneously straightening the other arm down towards her feet, causing him to lose his balance above her as she rolled him over on his back again. They lay still for a moment, and a small shiver ran through her as they locked eyes while trying to catch their breath. How would this look if someone should happen to walk in at this moment, she wondered.  
  
"Pretty good, Hauser. But you have a lot to learn," she finally stated then rolled off of him and stood back up to dust herself off. Duke sat up, looking at her in wonder.  
  
"Would you really have - ," he started to ask apprehensively.  
  
"No!" Scarlett laughed at him, "Because for one, I was just trying to catch you off-guard, which worked by the way. When fighting for your life, there are no rules or etiquette. You use whatever is at your disposal, materially or verbally. And two, I wasn't going to lose anyway."  
  
"Heh, now who's being cocky?" He asked as he stood back up.  
  
"I just call them as I see them."  
  
"You sure you don't work for Cobra? That was a dirty trick you pulled."  
  
"Aw, are you always such a sore loser?"  
  
"The only thing sore about me is where you elbowed me in the face," he retorted.  
  
"Oh, yeah that's going to leave a mark isn't it," she replied with a hint of regret in her tone as she touched his reddened jaw. His breath quickened in response to her touch then he put his hand over hers.  
  
"It'll be fine," he reassured her as he gently put her hand back down. "I'm the one who told you not to go easy on me didn't I?"  
  
"Well technically I told you I wouldn't and didn't give you a choice in the matter," she smirked. "But if you want that to be your story, I'll stick to it."  
  
"Smart-ass," he chortled.  
  
"You're welcome."  
  
"Duke!" Gung-Ho called out from the doorway. "They need you in the control room; someone's tapping the Alaskan oil pipeline!"  
  
"How much you wanna bet that 'someone' is Cobra?" Duke stated to Scarlett as his expression turned harsh. "Come on. Grab your favorite weapon - OTHER than your hands - to take with you."  
  
"I'm coming with you guys?" She asked in surprise. "You're so sure already?"  
  
"Well if you're ever going to command a mission you'll have to participate in one first," he replied, flashing a smile at her, "and I'm going to need a copilot." Scarlett beamed.  
  
"XK-1 Power Crossbow, please."  
  
*******************  
  
Duke's suspicions were right, it was Cobra at the Alaskan pipeline, headed by none other than Major Bludd himself, giving them confirmation of his affiliation with the Cobra Command.  
  
Scarlett flew back to the base with Duke, exhilarated from participating in her first mission with the team. She felt like a kid after riding her first big roller coaster - what a rush! And Duke was utterly amazing to watch in action, he was fearless and never lost his cool. The way he led his team reminded her of a maestro conducting an orchestra: smooth, precise and harmonious. Scarlett found his confidence contagious.  
  
"You're pretty jazzed. Exciting isn't it?" Duke asked her as he flew their plane back to base.  
  
"How could you tell?" She asked, as she wondered how he had eyes in the back of his head.  
  
"I can see your reflection in the glass. Your glow is blinding my visual, cut it out."  
  
"Guess that means I can't make funny faces at you," Scarlett joked, "at least not anymore."  
  
"Heh heh heh," Duke chuckled. "Hey by the way, that was great how you handled Clutch earlier. Just so you know, not everyone on the team shares his chauvinistic belief system."  
  
"It was nothing, really. Just one of the advantages to growing up in an all male household I suppose." Scarlett shrugged. "Father and three older brothers; the 'but I'm a girl' excuses never flew with them."  
  
"What about your mother?"  
  
"No mother, she died when I was seven."  
  
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize - ," Duke started to apologize. "That must have been hard for you."  
  
"It's okay. I really don't remember much, mostly vague memories."  
  
"Your father never remarried?"  
  
"Nope. Then again, he had four kids as baggage, and who wants that, right? Not that he tried, it was like nobody could ever compare to her - my mom."  
  
"My mom did a couple years after my father died, I wasn't as young as you were though - ten."  
  
"Still too young, sorry to hear that," Scarlett commented with a hint of sorrow in her tone, though she couldn't help feeling comforted that someone understood where she was coming from. "So what was that like? Having a step parent I mean?"  
  
"He was a good father figure and took good care of my mom - still does. I got a little half-brother out of the deal too. Vince is a Green Beret now just like his old man. He just got his commission too."  
  
"My aren't you the proud big brother." Scarlett enjoyed listening to the pride that radiated through his tone as he talked about his little brother. "So it isn't weird to have to salute your baby brother?" She couldn't help taunting him a little. He turned around to look at her, his piercing blues narrowed on her as he feigned insult, though his lips pressed together to suppress his laughter gave him away.  
  
"Hasn't been a problem as long as we're indoors or in our civilians," he retorted. Scarlett laughed. He turned back around to face forward again. "I am damn proud of the kid. I just wish he didn't have such a weakness for the ladies."  
  
"As opposed to his big brother?"  
  
"Hey."  
  
"Hey yourself, Drink Man."  
  
"That was an isolated incident."  
  
"So now it was an incident?"  
  
"Well you ran out of there like you were fleeing the scene of a crime," he chuckled at her. "What else would you call it?"  
  
"But I - ."  
  
"But nothing. You ran."  
  
"Grrr."  
  
"Well?"  
  
"Touché," Scarlett relented, as she pondered the 'isolated' part of his 'incident' statement.  
  
******************* 


	4. Close Calls

"Close Calls"  
  
*******************  
  
"Breaker, how soon can you get our satellite to scan the Columbian jungles?" Scarlett asked the team's communications expert.  
  
"About three hours tops," Breaker replied as he bit into a red apple. "Why, what are we looking for?"  
  
"Yeah, what are we looking for?" Duke asked as he walked into the communications room. Caught off-guard by the C.O.'s entrance, Scarlett fought the urge to smile at his mere presence. Why did she take such delight in being in the same room with him, she wondered as she silently cursed him for having that effect on her.  
  
"Our spies have confirmation of Cobra's ties to the Columbian drug lords," Scarlett informed them. "He's supplying their weapons. I have a hunch that they're providing him with a location to operate in return. They hide their crops and processing labs deep inside Columbia's jungles, which would be a perfect hideout for those snakes."  
  
"Good enough for me," Duke replied. "Get a move on that, Breaker."  
  
"Consider it done, Top!" Breaker eagerly told him. "If there's a Cobra snake in that jungle our satellite will pick it up."  
  
*******************  
  
The military transport plane flew over the Columbian jungles in the middle of the night when lo and behold there it was - Cobra's training camp. Scarlett looked out the window to see the terrorist training grounds for herself in her night vision goggles, noting the various building locations: one main building and two barracks, along with several large sheds scattered around. And what's with the big cobra head on top of the main building? Is this guy trying to overcompensate for something lacking? What an idiot, no wonder the satellite could pick up the camp from space.  
  
"Scarlett, you and your team will raid Barracks A," Duke instructed as they strapped on their parachute packs, "Gung-Ho, your team will raid Barracks B. Stalker and I will go after the commander. Now lets shut down this little operation." Duke slid open the door to the Airbus.  
  
As Scarlett moved to the open door and prepared to make her jump, Duke gently put his hand on her shoulder and said to her in a hushed but still confident tone, "Don't worry, Red. You're gonna do great." Scarlett closed her eyes for a second as she felt like she was going to melt under his gentle touch. Stop it and just jump, she told herself. With his confidence instilled in her, Scarlett made her jump and her team followed suit. The rush that went through her as she freefell sent adrenaline surging through her and she felt invincible, like she could take on the world - or at least Cobra. She pulled her ripcord, opening her parachute then landed softly on the ground. She waited for the rest of her team to join her then led them to their designated Cobra barracks to raid, passing bullet-riddled police cars and a school bus with mannequin targets that were scattered around the property along the way. She saw the soldier who was on guard detail and knocked him out from behind with a strike in between his shoulder blades. They waited for Gung-Ho's team to get into position at their barracks.  
  
"Ready when you are, Red," Gung-Ho confirmed over her radio.  
  
"NOW!" On her command they blew open the doors and stormed the building, drawing their M-3A1 submachine guns on the Cobra soldiers who had already jumped out of their beds and were reaching for their guns.  
  
"DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND EAT THE FLOOR COBRA SCUM!" Scarlett bellowed out as she fired warning shots from her submachine gun into the ceiling. The Cobra soldiers dropped their weapons on the floor, raising their hands in the air.  
  
"ON YOUR FACES! NOW!" She ordered, pointing her M-3A1 into a Cobra soldier's neck. The Cobras obliged and laid prone position on the floor. Her team of Greenshirts immediately started picking up the guns off of the floor. Then in a flash in the corner of her eye Scarlett saw one of her Greenies a few yards away with his back turned to a Cobra soldier who had his hand around the handle of the pistol in his ankle holster, his finger already on the trigger. It was too late to warn him, and Scarlett immediately fired her gun at the Cobra, shredding open his chest and killing him instantly. Fuck, she lamented to herself, he couldn't have been more than nineteen. What a waste.  
  
"DOES ANYONE ELSE WANT TO BE STUPID LIKE YOUR FRIEND HERE?" Scarlett challenged the room, her tone unwavering. "YOU CAN EITHER WALK OUT OF HERE ON YOUR FEET OR BE CARRIED OUT IN A BODY BAG - IT'S UP TO YOU!"  
  
Silence.  
  
"That's what I thought. Get these snakes out of here," she ordered her Greenies. She walked over to the dead soldier and looked at the face of the young man whose life she took only minutes ago, his lifeless brown eyes staring back up at her. She knelt next to him and closed his eyelids.  
  
*******************  
  
"Hopefully Breaker will be able to get some information from the computers we seized," Scarlett said to Duke as they sat on the transport plane headed back to the States. Duke said nothing in response and she wondered if he was even listening to her. "You're still pissed that the commander got away," she said, now noticing Duke's seething expression.  
  
"The commander and his high ranking officers," Duke fumed.  
  
"We shut their training camp down and collected their soldiers," Scarlett reasoned. "That buys us a little time."  
  
"Only until he recruits more and opens up another training camp, if he doesn't already have one elsewhere," he stated. Scarlett hated to see him brood, but he was right. Their stop to Cobra was only temporary at best. She decided not to push the issue since she had her own casualty to brood over. That baby face, the young lifeless eyes staring back up at his killer, and she'd never even know his name - which was for the best for fear of humanizing him any more than she already had. And he'd only be the first of many to come. These soldiers swore allegiance to Cobra and were more than willing to die for this madman's cause. Apparently they were also willing to shoot up school buses as well. Inside a huge shed she raided after the barracks was an equally macabre scene - shot-up mannequins, male and female, in domestic and office settings, some with red, blood-like stains on them. The disturbing scenes strengthened her resolve to put a stop to the Cobra Command.  
  
"You're thinking about that soldier, aren't you," said Duke as he took notice of her sullen expression and faraway look in her eyes. Scarlett snapped out of her trance and just shrugged.  
  
"War is hell, right? I'll be fine," she promised then her attention was turned to the trickle of blood coming from his forehead. "Duke you're bleeding," she said with slight alarm.  
  
Duke touched the wound on his forehead then looked at the blood on his fingertips. "Oh," he replied nonchalantly, "I thought I had it had stopped."  
  
"You should have Doc take a look at it."  
  
"Doc's busy tending to real wounds. It'll clot soon enough."  
  
"Not soon enough for me. Come on, Top," she said as she picked up a first aid kit and dragged him to the lavatory. It was a tight fit in there but the lighting was much better.  
  
"This really isn't necessary," Duke protested as she dabbed antiseptic on his wound.  
  
"Don't give me a hard time. You don't want this to get infected."  
  
"I have better things to do."  
  
"Like what? Brood? You can do that while I clean this up."  
  
"Do you always have to be such a smart-ass?"  
  
"So change my name to Sergeant Smart-Ass," she retorted as she taped gauze over the wound. Duke looked in wonder at the fiery redhead, not afraid to stand up to him but without overstepping her bounds as his subordinate. He fought the urge to push the few strands of hair off of her face. Before he had a chance to reply to her remark they were suddenly jolted by turbulence. He caught her by her waist to prevent her fall, gripping her tightly and closely to hold her steady.  
  
There she was, standing in the big Master Sergeant's arms, pressed up against him with her hands clutched to his shoulders and her face only inches from his. She could feel the warmth of his breath on her skin as his piercing blues gazed down on her, looking intently into her deep blue eyes. She was too captivated to look away as she felt like those piercing blues were shooting a fire through her body. She was sure he could feel her heart was about to leap right out of her chest. As his clutch around her waist softened to more of a caress and his lips slowly came an inch closer to hers, she was sure he was about to kiss her. This is wrong, she told herself. This couldn't happen - not with another teammate and certainly not with her superior. But at the same time she longed to taste his lips, to explore the deep passionate side of this man. But there were two careers on the line; was she ready to open that can of worms? The intensity was too much to bear for her and she finally broke away from him.  
  
"I'm fine," she said nervously, "turbulence is over." It actually had been for seemingly an eternity by now.  
  
"Um, good," he replied as he nervously ran his hand through his short blonde hair, and a mixed feeling of disappointment and relief washed over him. "And I'm all bandaged up so lets get out of this sardine can."  
  
******************* 


	5. Man of Action

"Man of Action"  
  
*******************  
  
Scarlett sat among her teammates in the Tomahawk en route to Saudi Arabia. According to the information they got out of the seized computers from Cobra's training camp, Cobra was planning to take over the U.S. Embassy in Jeddah. The information was retrieved only hours before the plans for the takeover indicated, hopefully they weren't too late. Their recent raid should have left the Cobra Command short-handed on manpower.  
  
Scarlett turned her thoughts more towards that recent raid as she tried to make sense of the disturbing visuals. How does shooting up school buses and innocent civilians in domestic settings accomplish world domination? Then there was the young soldier she shot and killed in their barracks. What would make such a relatively young kid want to give his life to the Cobra Command? She wondered what the commander said to them - promised them - in order to seduce their lives from them for his cause. She didn't doubt that there was a method to Cobra's madness. After all, the man didn't become a threat to human freedom by being stupid.  
  
Then there was that close call with Duke on the transport plane back home. She wondered what would have happened if she would have let him kiss her. Then what? A quickie in that lavatory to join the ranks of the Mile High Club? It wasn't like they could pursue a relationship in their situation - or could they? But whatever it was, it couldn't happen - there were rules, and for good reason. She cursed herself for being so drawn to him, it was a first in her military career and it frightened her. The military was so much easier to get through without the personal baggage, and she liked the blinders she always kept on - they served her well. Unfortunately Duke caught her off-guard by approaching her in a civilian setting without the surrounding reality of rank and fraternization rules. She wondered if Master Sergeant "Drink Man" had been caught off-guard too as she watched the fearless leader prepare them for their mission, going over all the last minute details.  
  
The Tomahawk hovered nearby over the Embassy while the ground troops got into position around the building's perimeter. Scarlett and her fellow teammates on board strapped on their jet packs and jumped out of the heavy lift assault and troop carrier helicopter, meeting on the rooftop of the Embassy building. They tossed their jet packs aside and secured the grappling hooks of their ropes to the rooftop and rappelled down the side of the building then in one fell swoop all came crashing through the windows simultaneously. The place was swarming with Cobra soldiers, who wasted no time in attacking their unwanted guests.  
  
"Guess who decided to 'drop' in!" Duke hollered out to the Cobra soldiers as he came through the window, firing his XMLR-3A laser rifle at them. "We thought we'd 'crash' your little party!" He sneered as he side kicked a soldier coming for him from the side. Scarlett suddenly found herself face- to-face with a soldier with his M-16 pointed at her, and without delay kicked the weapon out of his hand and brought her crossbow up at him. From several yards behind her another Cobra soldier had his rifle aimed at Scarlett, catching Duke's attention.  
  
"I don't think so, snake-breath," Duke growled as he set his sights on the Cobra soldier. Before the soldier had a chance to pull the trigger on his unsuspecting target, Duke fired several laser shots into Scarlett's would- be killer. Scarlett's soldier in front of her turned and ran.  
  
"Where do you think YOU'RE going?" Scarlett snarled as she fixed the sights of her crossbow on the soldier. Another Cobra soldier grabbed her from behind and she immediately kicked her heel straight back into his shin. As his hands moved reflexively towards his pain, Scarlett spun around and kneed him in the face then delivered an open-hand strike to the soldier's throat, nearly crushing his windpipe, and he dropped to his knees choking, desperately gasping for air.  
  
Out of the corner of her eye she swore she saw Major Bludd and took off running after him down the corridor. Once she turned the corner in the hall she couldn't see him anymore. As she continued to look around she was suddenly blindsided by Major Bludd dropping down on her from the ceiling rafters, tackling her to the ground. She fired her crossbow just before losing her grip on the trigger, aimed at nowhere in particular as it sent off her thermal arrow down the corridor. The weapon was out of her hand now, freeing her to use both of her hands to fight. She cupped the back of his neck with one arm, using her weight to pull him into her chest and made a fist around his ear with the other hand, digging her fingers deep behind it. With full force she yanked her hand downwards, tearing away the back of his ear where it once joined his head. Major Bludd let out a blood- curdling scream as he instinctively grabbed his ear and pulled back from her. His left shoulder was now soaked in blood running down from his partly torn ear.  
  
"You bloody G.I. Joe cunt! You'll pay dearly!"  
  
Scarlett jumped to her feet but was quickly grabbed by both arms by two Cobra soldiers. Now that the two soldiers had her restrained, Major Bludd used the opportunity to approach her, his eyes darkened with venomous hatred. Using her weight against the two soldiers as leverage, Scarlett delivered a hard kick to Major Bludd squarely in the face. He recoiled a couple feet in reaction then came back at her with his fist clenched tight and struck her across the face then kicked her in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of her. Her knees buckled underneath her and the soldiers dragged her off to one of the offices where she was tied up, gagged and blindfolded in the corner.  
  
"Pity such a beauty must go to waste," Major Bludd sneered as he strapped a bomb to her chest. "Well you should be red head mince meat in 'bout three minutes when you and the rest 'o this bloody building blow to smithereens, ahahahaha!!!!!"  
  
She could hear Bludd and his soldiers hurry out of the room, locking the door behind them to ensure that the Joes wouldn't discover the bomb inside in time. She was still having a hard time breathing from Bludd's kick and knowing the bomb was on her chest only made it worse, not to mention the fact that she was going to die in about two minutes by now. Even if she weren't gagged and could yell for help, even if somebody COULD hear her within earshot, they couldn't possibly get into the locked room and diffuse the bomb in time. The situation was hopeless, and for the first time in her life she felt helpless and frightened. She couldn't even look at the timer because of the blindfold. All she could do was mentally count down the seconds left in her life. Sixty, fifty-nine, fifty-eight. Suddenly she heard a voice outside the door.  
  
"Scarlett! Are you in there! Scarlett!" Duke yelled at the locked door. He had seen her thermal arrow and followed it down the corridor, picking up her crossbow along the way. He knew she couldn't be far - unless she had been taken prisoner. Scarlett desperately tried to yell through her gag, only for it to come out as a muffled cry. Then Scarlett heard a loud crashing noise as Duke kicked the door down and ran over to her.  
  
"Scarlett, it's Duke. You're going to be okay," he stated soothingly as he hid his worry from his tone while he hurriedly pulled the bomb off of her chest. Duke pulled an arrow from her pack and quickly loaded it into her crossbow, attaching the bomb to the loaded arrow as well. He smashed the glass in the office window and aimed her crossbow at the sky, firing the arrow with the bomb attached then watched as it exploded into the sky. Scarlett heard Duke let out a sigh of relief after the explosion and suddenly she knew deep in her gut that everything would be okay.  
  
Duke crouched next to her and untied her gag then removed her blindfold. His piercing blues only inches away from her were the first thing she saw when he removed her blindfold and were a sight for sore eyes. She was sure she would never see them again. But there was something different about them this time, she noticed. They weren't looking AT her; they were looking INTO her, with intense worry behind them along with a glimmer of fury as he lightly touched the discoloration and swelling starting to form on her left cheek where Major Bludd had struck her. A shiver ran through her as she felt as if he was looking right into her soul. She looked back intensely at the fearless leader who had just saved her life. Before she gave herself a chance to talk herself out of it this time, Scarlett closed her eyes and leaned forward, gently touching her lips to his. Duke instinctively cradled the sides of her head with his hands, pressing his lips harder onto hers and kissing her deeply and even more passionately as their lips parted, allowing their tongues to caress and tease each other. They leaned back to lie on the floor and desire ran through her as his mouth took absolute possession over hers in the thrill of their forbidden kiss. Everything around her disappeared as she lost herself in his kiss and his touch as his hands started moving over her, stroking her hair and caressing her neck, then sliding down her side to her waist and the small of her back. The fire flaring through her made her to forget about her near demise and she savored the moment - then he suddenly pulled away.  
  
"What's wrong?" She asked worriedly, now snapped out of her trance by Duke's sudden withdraw from her.  
  
"I still need to remove these," Duke answered, touching the ropes around her wrists bound behind her.  
  
"Oh," she replied softly as he pulled a knife out of his pocket and cut the ropes on her wrists and ankles, then all of the events starting flooding back to her. Once freed, she threw her arms around him as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do, burying her face in his broad shoulder.  
  
"I thought I was going to die. If you hadn't come along I - ," she stopped mid-sentence as the reality of facing her own mortality started to hit her and could feel herself starting to feel emotionally overwhelmed by it.  
  
"You won't die, not if I have anything to do with it," he promised as he held her tightly and stroked her hair, "You're going to be okay." The resolve in his tone made her believe him. Then she started to realize what a terrible situation she was putting her C.O. in. He was possibly risking his career over their moment of weakness - and certainly risking it if this went any further. He must have realized that when he pulled out of their kiss so suddenly.  
  
"I'm sorry," she said as she reluctantly pulled out of their tight embrace, "I'm being highly inappropriate. I shouldn't have - you know - kissed you like that. I was wrong."  
  
"There's nothing to apologize for, Red. You were reacting to surviving certain death," Duke reluctantly gave her an out. "Come on, let's get out of here."  
  
******************* 


	6. Pushed To The Edge

"Pushed To The Edge"  
  
*******************  
  
Scarlett stretched out as she tried to get more comfortable in her seat. These damn military flights made the budget airlines look like first class. She was fairly used to it by now, though these international flights were an exceptional drag. She glanced over at Duke, who looked like he felt right at home. They were en route to Munich, Germany for their first Covert-Ops mission together - just them. Just great, she sighed as she wondered how she was going to survive being alone with the man who invaded her thoughts - and for the next few weeks to boot. Maybe when they met up with the Baroness she would do her a favor and put her out of her misery. A gunshot wound would be less painful than the growing tension between her and Duke. All because of that kiss that happened on their last mission in Jeddah.  
  
That kiss.  
  
Not just "that kiss": that melt-your-flesh-off-your-bones kiss she'd never forget, and not for lack of trying. Of course the tension started ever since she first walked into his office just a few short months ago, but that kiss sent them both running for cover and they had successfully avoided being around each other for the last few weeks - that is until Hawk assigned their new mission together.  
  
No problem, right? Okay maybe not, but they were professionals, she reminded herself. Grin and bear it. Just get the information and evidence and get out. Only one weapons supplier could produce the kind of state-of- the-art weaponries that were indicated on Cobra's seized computers: MARS - Military Armaments Research Syndicate, headed by James McCullen Destro XXIV. The Baroness was their link to Destro. The two had been romantically involved, among other things.  
  
And just to make matters even tenser they were posing as a husband and wife team looking for a weapons manufacturer for these particular types of weaponries to arm their soldiers protecting their drug manufacturing laboratories, with the hopes that Baroness would lead them to Destro. Apparently they were the natural choice for this mission because of Duke's fluency in the German language, among many other languages, and Scarlett being the only female on the team to choose from. Scarlett looked over at the blonde Master Sergeant, who was quietly looking over the MARS file. He looked up at her, catching her gaze then smiled out of the corner of his mouth and looked back down at his file.  
  
They'd have to be convincing. Sigh.  
  
*******************  
  
Scarlett styled her hair and applied her make-up in her hotel room bathroom to get ready for their dinner meeting with the Baroness in the hotel restaurant. No ponytail for this mission, she mused as she adjusted her black matte jersey wraparound dress. She breathed deeply as she tried to calm her racing nerves before Duke stopped by to escort her to their dinner date downstairs. She wished she wasn't so disturbed by their situation; it was too "close" for her. But it was nobody's fault, that was just the way it was and she had a job to do, she told herself. Just because she was drawn to him didn't mean that she had to follow through with her growing feelings for the young leader. Not that he was actually that young, but he was relatively young for his rank and position - not young compared to her age of twenty-five since he was in his early thirties. He had excelled like some prodigy soldier in his military career, soaring through the ranks and leadership positions - just one more aspect of him to intrigue her. The slight age difference didn't bother her - but then again why should it since this couldn't happen, right? She almost dropped her perfume bottle on the marble tile floor when she heard the rapping on her door. Scarlett closed her eyes and took a deep breath.  
  
"Showtime."  
  
*******************  
  
Duke escorted Scarlett from her room to the hotel restaurant, trying not to trace the plunging V-shaped neckline of her dress with his eyes as they stood in the elevator. Scarlett glanced at the gold phony wedding bands on their fingers. Well this is weird, she thought as she winced at her ugly band - Ulgh, who picked this thing? She already couldn't wait to rip it off her hand; she felt as if it was taunting her and her feelings for Duke, even if it was just an ugly piece of jewelry. Before they stepped off of the elevator Duke offered his arm for her to take, then looked at her with a slighted expression and leaned over to bring his lips next to her ear.  
  
"You know, nobody's going to believe we even like each other let alone be married if you act like I have Leprosy," he stated in a hushed tone. Scarlett's expression fell in response to his statement. She hadn't even realized that she had hesitated to take his arm.  
  
"Who said all married couples actually like each other?" She asked sarcastically as she looped her arm through his.  
  
"Speak for yourself, baby," he smugly stated as they stepped off the elevator. She turned and looked at him in disbelief as they continued to walk together.  
  
"Did you just call me 'Baby'?" She asked in an appalled tone.  
  
"Abso-fucking-lutely - Baby." He smirked at her as her eyes narrowed on him.  
  
"Whatever. See if YOU get any tonight - Baby," she retorted as she turned to face forward again.  
  
"See that? We're acting like a married couple already," he chuckled. Scarlett rolled her eyes. "I saw that," he said dryly. Scarlett let out a tiny laugh in response.  
  
"Darlings! How good of you to join me," Baroness greeted them in her smug eastern European accent when they approached her table in the restaurant.  
  
"Baroness DeCobray, it's a pleasure," Duke smoothly greeted the raven- haired beauty. "Ryan Chandler. This is my wife Kitty."  
  
"We've heard so much about you," Scarlett gushed. "You're a legend in our circles."  
  
"Sit. Have some fabulous champagne with me," Baroness insisted as she snapped for the waiter to pour glasses for her guests as Duke helped Scarlett into her chair.  
  
"Oh no thanks we - ," Duke started to turn her down as he took his seat.  
  
"But I'd love to! Thank you!" Scarlett interrupted him. Duke glared at her disapprovingly and she kicked him under the table. She had a feeling the Baroness was testing them to see if they would turn away alcohol for being on duty. She didn't mind the idea of a little drink taking the edge off the tension either.  
  
"You're sure?" Baroness asked her skeptically. Scarlett leaned into the table towards the Baroness and lowered her voice as if to exclude Duke from their conversation.  
  
"Oh don't mind him," Scarlett reassured her, "Champagne gives him, um, 'problems' later. Lets just say he can't get his transmission out of neutral - if you know what I mean. He takes it SO personally." Duke kicked Scarlett under the table. Ow! She bit her lower lip to keep from wincing at his boot's hit against her bare leg as she thought, do it again and he'll have a stiletto heel in his groin.  
  
"Hmph, my condolences." Baroness let out a subtle laugh as she tilted her champagne flute to her lips. Over dinner and drinks the Baroness discussed the various state-of-the-art weaponries available to them for the right price. Then the band started playing in the lounge.  
  
"Ooh honey I love this song! Come on!" Scarlett exclaimed as she stood up from the table and yanked on Duke's arm. Duke let out a soft chuckle.  
  
"You'll have to excuse us, Baroness. Kitty always has to drag me into at least one dance in the lounge or it isn't a successful day for her. Guess that's the price you pay for taking a wife almost a decade your junior," Duke excused himself, taking Scarlett's cue to go with her to the lounge's dance floor so they could discuss the Baroness.  
  
Baroness watched them from her table as they swayed lightly on the dance floor, carefully observing how they laughed and smiled brightly and gazed over each other, how Scarlett lay her head on Duke's shoulder, how Duke closed his eyes as he smelled the scent of Scarlett's flowing mane right under his face. Baroness nodded and smiled pleasantly towards them.  
  
"Fools," Baroness muttered as she sipped her champagne. "Just fuck each other and get it over with."  
  
******************* 


	7. Falling Off The Edge

"FALLING OFF THE EDGE"  
  
By Slayne22  
  
Additional disclaimers - Don't own the lyrics to "The Water Is Wide" or "Wicked Game" (Chris Isaak).  
  
Notes- This chapter was written by Slayne22 as a birthday present for me for this fic and is edited and published with her permission. I love it and I'm sure you'll enjoy too! THANK YOU SLAYNE22!!!  
  
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Scarlett looked at the blond Master Sergeant over the top of her menu. He was frowning down at his own menu and she would have bet good money that he wasn't seeing it at all.  
  
"Can we indulge in a cocktail or two, Top? Or do we have to stay clean tonight?"  
  
"What?" He glanced up at her distractedly, the blue eyes meeting her own and snapping sharply into attentiveness. She frowned a bit herself at his distance. He could be brooding over the outcome of the mission...or he could be distracted and disturbed by the growing tension between them.  
  
"Is it the mission, Duke?"  
  
He held her gaze for a moment and then snapped his menu shut and threaded his fingers together, bracing them under his chin.  
  
"Yeah, a little. Cobra always gets away. If we were doing our job right, they'd be in custody right now."  
  
"We're doing our job just fine. Evil plan was thwarted and the people of the world are safe again - for a while."  
  
He nodded absently, and Scarlett sighed softly, watching him. The mission had ended early this morning as the Baroness destroyed evidence and slipped away like mist into the dawn. They had spent the rest of the day wrapping up loose ends with the local law enforcement agencies, and then Duke had called Hawk to report. Scarlett had leaned on the balcony railing of his hotel room, trying not to listen as the big Master Sergeant had argued, growled and then, eventually, remained silent and accepted responsibility himself, letting the Colonel ream him up one side and down the other. They'd been on this mission for weeks, and had been so close to slamming the door shut on the European femme fatale of Cobra. Instead, she'd proven why she was such a high-ranking member of Cobra Command and had smelled them coming before they'd even got to the door.  
  
When Duke had finally hung the phone up, placing it quietly down, he had sank into a chair and stared grimly ahead at nothing. Scarlett had glanced at him with concern and then walked back inside and layed a hand on his shoulder. He had glanced at her briefly as she squeezed comfortingly.  
  
"We're not perfect, Conrad." She had used his real name, her voice low. "We win some and we lose some."  
  
He had leaned forward and ran both hands through the blond crew cut with a deep exhalation. His forward movement slid his shoulder from her grip and sent her hand over the broad back. She had pulled back as if burned.  
  
"I know." He sighed with frustration. They had discussed it briefly, but he hadn't been in a very talkative mood. He wanted to sulk about it, and Scarlett guessed he had earned the right to do so after all the hard work he'd put into the mission and then the subsequent dressing down by Hawk when it had all fallen apart. She understood that part of him well. She had learned a lot about the Joe's Second since they began working together. The initial attraction between them had tempered into a mild flirting and deeper friendship. She knew, at heart, that there was something else there as well, but she wasn't sure she wanted to delve deeper within it and discover what that was.  
  
She'd left him alone for a few hours and then taken a shower, dressed and met him for dinner at the hotel restaurant. He had looked a bit more relaxed, but now seemed to be brooding again.  
  
The waiter appeared at their table and Scarlett ordered a glass of the house red and a whiskey sour for Duke, telling the young man that they would need a few more minutes to look over the menus before ordering dinner. Duke watched her as the waiter walked away. He raised a blond eyebrow.  
  
"I don't believe I ever granted permission for a cocktail, Red."  
  
She rolled her eyes at him. "I'm not sitting here all night with you like this. One drink won't kill us."  
  
He smiled faintly, and his eyes trailed down over her face to the open neck of her shirt and the wisps of red hair that fanned out over her shoulders. She watched him take a deep breath and look away. It had been this way all through the mission. They had worked the mission with their usual professionalism and dedication...but in the evening, if there was nothing more to do, they had stared at each other over dinner, trying to talk nonchalantly while their gazes ran over each other. Without the surrounding reality of the rest of the team, it had grown more intimate, a little tenser between them. Scarlett had been disturbed by it at first, but as the days went on she was finding herself accepting it more and more. Their eyes met and held. He stood a little too close when they talked alone, and she didn't back away. And then, of course...there had been that kiss that had happened on the previous mission. She wondered if he thought about it too, but when he glanced back at her and the blue eyes fell to her lips, she had her answer.  
  
The waiter came with their drinks, and Scarlett glanced at the menu and ordered the chicken, taking a sip of her wine and then wincing a bit. Perhaps she should have asked for the wine list. House wine could be unpredictable at best sometimes.  
  
"Just bring me a steak," Duke told the waiter without looking at the menu again. His attention turned back to Scarlett as the man nodded and walked away. He looked at the delicate line of her jaw as she sipped her wine, her blue eyes a contrast to the mane of long red hair that swept around her neck and over her shoulders. 'Striking' was probably one of the least powerful words he could use to describe her, he thought. She had swept onto the team with her red mane flying and a temper to match. If he had been overwhelmingly attracted to her physically from the outset...he had been nearly swept completely away by her fierce personality and fighting skills. She had a sense of discipline around her from her dedication to martial arts, but it couldn't keep that small wild streak from surfacing once in a while. He had not been able to keep himself from flirting lightly with her right from the beginning. The humor and mutual attraction of their first meeting in the bar had given them a near instantaneous bond. But instead of fading away as they got to know each other better, the tension and attraction had grown stronger until the energy between them was noticeable, palpable and agonizing.  
  
They talked softly while they ate, finally laughing a bit over the mission and the Baroness's flawless escape. Scarlett was relieved to hear him laugh. She told him so as the remains of their dinner were cleared away and two fresh drinks were set in front of them.  
  
"Somehow, you can always drag a smile out of me, Shana." He murmured, his gaze connecting with hers. She bit her lip to keep from reacting to the heat in his gaze. He took a deep breath and then started in on his second drink.  
  
Scarlett sipped her wine and felt the warmth of the alcohol settle nicely throughout her limbs, letting her relax a bit. Duke's boot settled against her foot under the table and she glanced at him. He leaned on his elbows on the table, the sleeves of his shirt rolled up over his thick forearms, revealing golden hair on the tanned skin and on the backs of his long, lean fingers wrapped around his glass. She could see the hint of powerful biceps through the stretched cloth of his shirt, just beneath broad shoulders and a corded neck. The piercing blue eyes stared intently at her from beneath the short, neat military cut of his blond hair. She held his gaze too long. Damn...  
  
"Are we going to talk about this, Shana?" He asked softly.  
  
"About what? The mission?"  
  
"You know that's not what I'm talking about."  
  
She sighed slowly and glanced at him. "I know, but it can't happen."  
  
"Anything can happen."  
  
"That doesn't mean it should. I know you believe that."  
  
There was a pause, and then the backs of his fingers brushed hers on the table, almost as if it were accidental.  
  
"I'm not sure what I believe anymore."  
  
She bit her lip and looked up at him. His gaze didn't waver from hers. That tension between them stretched tautly and threatened to shatter. She couldn't take it. It was too much. She shook her head and started to stand.  
  
"I should go - I'm --."  
  
His hand closed over hers and gripped it tightly, pulling her up short before she could push herself to her feet.  
  
"Stop running away, Shana."  
  
She stared at him a moment and then slowly slid her hand from his grasp. She turned and walked towards the elevator and her room.  
  
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Stop running away, indeed! Scarlett snorted and looked in the bathroom mirror at herself. He had done more than his fair share of running as well. She had been struck with a strange mix of relief and disappointment when he had. What would he have done if she had sat back down to discuss it with him? He hadn't been showing signs of telling her they had to cool it. In fact, she had rather felt like she was standing on the edge of a deep crevasse in imminent danger of falling into it. Was Duke already falling? Or did he still stand on that same edge with her?  
  
She sighed and changed into a t-shirt and the pair of light cotton lounging pants that she slept in while at hotels. She turned the TV on and settled onto the bed to watch the news. Her mind wouldn't focus on the anchorwoman's words though, and flashes of deep blue eyes and short, blond hair kept filling her thoughts. She got up with a frustrated curse and snatched a small bottle of cheap brandy from the mini-bar, ripping the cap off and pouring it into one of the complimentary plastic cups. She sipped it and tried to relax. The urge to drink all of the little bottles and get good and ripped was tempting. But...this was it. If not because duty was never far away, then because she didn't want to do something stupid while besotted and alone in this hotel with Top. She walked to the nightstand beside the bed, where the remote for the TV was bolted down. She changed the channel until she found a block of TV music channels that showed blue screen and played non-stop music with no commercials. She stopped when Chris Isaak's song 'Wicked Game' came through on the hits channel.  
  
"Oh, this is fitting." She sighed and sipped her drink again. She closed her eyes and listened to the slow, languid desperation of the song.  
  
  
  
'What a wicked thing to do - to make me dream of you.  
  
I don't want to fall in love - with you.'  
  
  
  
She sipped her brandy and swayed slowly, singing along softly. She didn't hear the soft raps on the door, or the subsequent click as a key was turned in the lock and the door opened.  
  
  
  
Duke stepped inside and stopped short. He'd been slightly worried about Scarlett after she'd left the table. They kept copies of the keys for each other's rooms for safety reasons, and he'd used his in concern. Now he stood and watched her in the dim room as she swayed, eyes closed, to the song on the TV. A rush of emotion flooded his mind and body and he hesitated in the doorway, trying to decide if he should just leave quietly. A laugh from down the hall decided things for him as it split through the quiet hallway and interrupted the song. Scarlett jumped and looked at him.  
  
"Duke --."  
  
He let the door close behind him. "Sorry. When you didn't answer my knock, I got a little worried."  
  
"I didn't hear it," she exclaimed. She looked down at the plastic cup in her hand and walked to the sink to pour it out. Enough of that.  
  
He watched as she walked back to her place by the window. She had changed clothes, and the thin cotton shirt and pants clung softly to her curves. The scent of her soap and shampoo hung in the air, and he couldn't help but breathe deeply. He listened to the song for a long minute as she turned and looked at him.  
  
"Fitting song," he muttered, and she smiled faintly at the familiar thought. Their eyes met.  
  
"Sorry I left so abruptly," she said.  
  
He shrugged. "I can take a hint, Shana. If this is the way you want it..."  
  
It 'wasn't' the way she wanted it. Not at all. She wanted to know everything about him, from his favorite color to the way his skin tasted. All of it. But...there was so much on the line. She looked at him helplessly and stayed silent. Another song started on the TV. Someone singing 'The Water is Wide', a popular song for recording as a cover. Duke moved towards her slightly, trying to smile lightly.  
  
"You left without dragging me into one dance in the lounge like you usually do."  
  
She let him walk slowly towards her and take her hand to pull her closer. God, the edge of that crevasse was looming ominously now. He pulled her lightly into his arms and swayed with her with a minimum of movement. She felt his warm breath on her temple and his muscled arms slid further around her waist.  
  
  
  
'The water is wide, I cannot cross over  
  
Neither do I have wings to fly  
  
Give me a boat that can carry two  
  
And both shall row, my love and I'  
  
  
  
Scarlett closed her eyes and slipped her arms further around his shoulders, her fingers brushing the nape of his neck. His scent and his warmth enveloped her, and their bodies pressed lightly together. They didn't speak and, by the third verse of the song, Scarlett was leaning heavily into him, almost unaware of her thumb massaging slow circles in the clipped, short hair on his nape.  
  
He pulled slowly back, the swaying movement stopping, as his lips brushed over jaw and then her chin before he glanced briefly into her eyes and pressed his mouth to hers. Scarlett inhaled sharply and her arms tightened around his shoulders as his lips moved slowly and heavily over hers. His mouth tasted of whiskey and she let her hand slide up into the short thick hair on the back of his head. When he suddenly pulled her hard against him and groaned softly into her mouth, she pulled back and then broke away from him. He held her for an instant, his arms tightening around her, before he relaxed and let her step away from him. They were silent as the song switched again. He stared at the slim line of her back, the glorious red mane falling softly between her shoulder blades.  
  
"I'm sorry if I broke some - trust between us, Shana." He finally said quietly.  
  
She looked confused and then alarmed. "No, Conrad. You didn't. It's - God - it's not all your fault. It's just - the intimacy between us - especially here, without the rest of the team around --." She trailed off, shaking her head.  
  
He stepped forward and turned her to face him, standing so close she could feel his breath.  
  
"It could be that way all of the time."  
  
She looked up and into the blue eyes. "I know."  
  
"It could be better."  
  
She couldn't answer him then. She felt his closeness in every nerve in her body. She inhaled his scent, and swore she could feel his heat. It was doing traitorous things to her body and she wondered if the current between them would crackle if either of them touched it.  
  
"Shana - it's going to happen," he said softly, his voice low and throaty.  
  
She took a long, slow breath and tried to calm her heartbeat. "What if I told you that I felt nothing during your kiss?"  
  
He hesitated a moment and then his head lowered slightly so his mouth was only inches from her ear.  
  
"Then I'd tell you you're a liar," he whispered, and she closed her eyes to the erotic quality of it all. His hands came to set lightly on her arms and he inched closer to her. She finally looked up at him. She frowned and her hands came up to shove at his chest. He captured them instead and forced her palms flat against his chest. She tried to ignore the hard bulge of muscle underneath them.  
  
"Shana," he said, his face inches from her. She looked up; her expression sullen with understanding that she was finally giving in. "Kiss me," he commanded. "Or tell me to behave myself and get out of your room."  
  
She could barely breathe as she stared at him. It was going to happen, she had realized earlier, and now she couldn't have walked away from him if the world had ended. He was giving her the chance to walk away, but he had to know she wouldn't take it.  
  
She tilted her head up, and her lips parted just before they met his. He let out a hard breath and released her hands. His arms eased around her and pulled her against him. His mouth moved slowly over hers, his tongue easing into her mouth and swirling in the depths. She kissed him back with the same slow passion. The familiar fire flared up in her body, its heat coursing through her veins and making every nerve in her body spark. She slid her hands up and over his chest to his shoulders and then around his neck. It brought her body hard against his and he sighed.  
  
He threaded his fingers through her hair, feeling the softness of the strands, the thickness of her mane, and felt his ache for her leap into a roaring desire. He pulled her hair back and bared her throat. His mouth moved to taste her skin there and she jumped in his arms, her breath catching. His mouth was hot, wet and electric. She concentrated on deep breaths as his mouth trailed over her throat to the side of her corded neck. He tasted her with each kiss, his mouth sucking and licking at her skin, until she could barely stand still in his embrace.  
  
"I've wanted you for so long," he murmured against her neck, his voice low and husky. One hand traveled down her back to press her hips against him more intimately. She felt the bulging hardness between his thighs and almost groaned at the thought of him.  
  
He lifted her against him for a deep, slow kiss, his hands gripping her waist lightly, his thumbs caressing over the bands there. She braced her hands on his shoulders and kissed him vigorously. His strength was immense, and it excited her in a way nothing else ever had in her life. And, of course, he knew this. He set her on her knees on the edge of her bed and stood in front of her, his hands slid slowly over her hips.  
  
"Conrad," she said breathlessly, as she knelt on the bed and he looked up at her, his blue eyes glittering in the night.  
  
He stood before her and lifted one knee to the bed beside her. He crawled forward over her, forcing her to lie back as he did. She pulled herself back into the middle of the bed and he braced himself above her, lowering his head to kiss her.  
  
He was right, it was going to happen - and did. She was amazed and frightened at how intense it had all been, and she knew it would never be the same between them again.  
  
******************* 


	8. The Morning After

"The Morning After"  
  
If you'd like to read more of mine or Slayne22's stories that are not here on ff.net due to whatever reason including ratings content, then join our Yahoo list. That means full unedited fic/chapter versions! We're using one as a fic archive right now and lurkers are more than welcome. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/joeland/ Link is available on my author page and Slayne22's as well.  
  
  
  
*******************  
  
Scarlett woke up next to Duke snuggled in his arms, with one of hers draped over his chest and one leg hooked over his. He had stayed all night, though she wasn't sure why this came as a surprise to her. Maybe it was because she expected to wake up alone to find that it had all been a dream - one big fantastic mind-blowing dream. She drew a slow deep breath as all the events of their long night together came flooding back to her. If their first kiss had been a melt-your-flesh-off-your-bones kiss, then her night with the Master Sergeant had been tear-flesh-from-bones sex. It was all so surreal to her - was this really happening?  
  
Or had they just thrown themselves at each other out of convenience?  
  
"Good morning, gorgeous," Duke greeted her as he kissed her forehead.  
  
"Hi," she replied timidly, still lost in her thoughts.  
  
"I'll bet you're wondering what this is and where it's going, right?"  
  
"No," Scarlett shyly protested as she lifted her head off his chest and looked at him, "I'm not that girl."  
  
"Oh, so you're okay with a one night stand?" He taunted her.  
  
"Well I'm not THAT girl either," Scarlett frowned at him.  
  
"Good to hear, because I'm not 'that' guy either," Duke stated as he lightly brushed away the few strands of hair off her face. "I told you it could be like this all the time and I intend for you to hold me to that."  
  
A smile tugged at the corner of Scarlett's mouth. "I believe you said, 'It could be better'," she corrected him.  
  
"I'll give you 'better'," he declared as he reached over to the nightstand to pick up the phone then started ordering room service. "How do you like your eggs?"  
  
"Over easy."  
  
"Over easy," he repeated in German into the phone receiver, "and don't bring it up for another half hour. Thank you."  
  
"What are you doing?" She asked curiously, understanding the "half hour" part of his order and taking notice of the mischievous grin now on his face.  
  
"Giving you 'better'," he growled as he turned back over and wrapped his arms around her. Scarlett let out a small shriek as he suddenly pulled her on top of him. "We still have two hours before we have to leave to catch our flight," he said as he threaded his fingers through her hair then added wickedly as he kissed her neck, "and I want to do bad things to you." His words and throaty naughty tone gave her goose bumps. Of course, he knew this.  
  
*******************  
  
After their morning interlude followed by breakfast Duke helped Scarlett pack her things from her room then took her luggage to his room and started packing their weapons and equipment and his belongings. A feeling of dread loomed over her as she packed their equipment. Although it certainly wasn't part of their mission, in fact forbidden, it didn't seem fair that just when her and Duke had finally gotten "closer" it was already time to leave. She couldn't help feeling that her time alone with her new lover had been cut short, then berated herself for running from him for so long. She had wasted so much precious time by being scared. She was still scared but it was different now - she wasn't in it alone. She looked at the blonde Master Sergeant as he packed his clothes. She wondered if he were scared too, of course he would never show it. Her thoughts were interrupted when his hotel phone rang.  
  
"This is Duke. Speak," he answered his phone then a slow smile crept on his face as he listened to the receiver. Scarlett looked at him, perplexed by his pleased expression. "Thank you," he said then hung up the phone.  
  
"What was that about?" She asked, still noting his playful grin.  
  
"Our plane's been grounded from ice and snow formations. We're not leaving until tomorrow," he informed her. Scarlett thought for a moment about what that meant to her - more time alone with Duke far away from headquarters and away from the Joe team. She could have her new lover all to herself for another day before they had to return to their real world called G.I. Joe.  
  
"So what do we do now?" She asked in feigned innocence as she tried to suppress the urge to laugh in delight at her luck.  
  
"Leave your luggage here and grab your coat. We're gonna paint this town red."  
  
*******************  
  
They spent the day arm in arm, studying Munich's museums and architecture, taking in the beautifully illuminated monuments, fountains and buildings. Scarlett savored the bliss of her time alone with Duke in their own little world as he effortlessly held her tightly on a regular basis as if to protect her from the cold - or perhaps he didn't want to let her go because of what reality tomorrow would bring. The Master Sergeant would never be able to hold her this closely - or at all for that matter - in the presence of others once back at headquarters, or give her a spontaneous kiss such as at the fountain. They were free to be themselves and Munich belonged to them, at least for this one day. It felt perfect. They made their way to the former artists' quarter Schwabing - the bar district in and around Leopoldstrasse, settling into one of the many nightclubs there.  
  
"I never pegged you for the type to live the night life," Scarlett commented as Duke took her coat. "Doesn't it conflict with your early morning PT?"  
  
"I'm full of surprises, Red," Duke replied with a mischievous grin as they took their seats then leaned over so his lips were only inches from her ear and said in a throaty tone, "Besides, PT will be at zero-dark-thirty instead of dawn from now on."  
  
Scarlett turned her head to face him as the shivers from his words ran through her. "Ahem, and just how do you plan to pull that off - Master Sergeant?" She asked playfully.  
  
"Very easily," he smugly replied as he took a drink of his whiskey sour. Scarlett looked at him in surprise.  
  
"You sound awfully sure of yourself."  
  
"Well," he started to state as he brushed the long red locks of hair off of her shoulder, massaging the back of her exposed neck, "For starters, you're the only occupant in the women's quarters and Hawk's presence is practically nonexistent on base."  
  
"Leaving nobody to watch over the Second, right?" Scarlett finished his sentence then tauntingly added as she sipped her martini, "So has rank always had its privileges for you, Top?"  
  
"It's not like that, Shana. I don't make a habit of this. In fact, this is a first for me and we both have a lot at stake here, but I really believe as long as we're careful and discreet and not let it interfere with our jobs we can pull this off."  
  
"It's a first for me too," she said quietly, looking into his piercing blues with intent behind them. She desperately wanted to believe him. How could he be so sure when he had even more to lose than her? After all, she was still his subordinate. Then as she mulled over the possibility she started to realize that Duke already had this all thought out - long before today. She smiled delightfully at him as she ran her fingers through his short crew cut.  
  
"So, zero-dark-thirty you said?" She asked then pressed her lips to his before he could answer, kissing him deeply. It was too late to put the brakes on now anyway, they couldn't turn back at this point. So it may as well be full steam ahead. Just then the song "Love Hangover" by Diana Ross started playing through the club.  
  
"Perfect," Duke muttered, drawing out of their kiss. "Let's go cut a rug."  
  
"I can't believe we're all the way in a Munich night club just to listen to American Seventies music," Scarlett mused aloud as Duke led her to the dance floor.  
  
"You're talking about a place where David Hasselhoff is a God," Duke chuckled as he drew her closer to him, swaying them seductively to the sexy tune.  
  
"Point taken," Scarlett laughed lightly as Duke raised one her arms above her to spin her around, stopping her when she faced away from him. Duke ran his hand down her raised arm and snaked his other hand across her abdomen, pulling her close to him again. Scarlett brought her arm down behind her, resting it around his neck then closing her eyes as he deftly pushed her hair aside and proceeded to slowly kiss the side of her neck.  
  
'I've got the sweetest hangover  
  
I don't wanna get over  
  
Sweetest hangover Sweet lovin'  
  
Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet love'  
  
Duke turned her to face him again and she draped her arms around his neck as he leaned down to kiss her again. He continued to sway with her to the music as they locked lips. It was their last chance for public display of affection until who-knows-when. The guitar rock tune "Layla" by Eric Clapton started playing as she continued to kiss him passionately, reveling in their moment as the intensity coursed through her like electricity. As she wondered if she was falling in love with the Master Sergeant, she didn't want her last-chance-for-romance to end.  
  
*******************  
  
The next morning Scarlett was on her dreaded flight back to headquarters with Duke. No ice and snow formations to keep them in Munich for one more day, though she cherished the one day they did have to spend together. She hoped the other teammates wouldn't be able to read "I'm in love with Top" across her forehead, if not for the hostile repercussions to follow, but also the respect they would lose for her if they ever found out about Duke and her. They would have to be very careful how they behaved around each other: how they smiled and gazed when around each other, how they spoke, and even their body language just to name a few.  
  
"What's the matter, Shana? You look like you've just seen a ghost," Duke commented from her seat next to her. They were the only passengers on the flight.  
  
"I'm worried about the others finding us out and the backlash that will come from that."  
  
"That's all? Fuck 'em, if anyone tries to give you any shit they'll have to answer to me for it," he declared with resolve. Scarlett let out a tiny smile. It was rather sweet to see him acting so protective of her. "So is there anything else you're scared of?" He asked.  
  
"Hmm, just spiders and public performances," she answered, "but I don't think you can help me with that."  
  
"You're kidding," Duke chuckled, "I find that hard to believe."  
  
"It's true, I even fainted in my high school play!" She informed him as he looked at her in surprise.  
  
"Wait, let me get this straight. You can go into war against Cobra, kicking the shit out of the lot of them but you faint in a little school play?"  
  
"They didn't give me a gun," she quipped. "What, haven't you ever been scared over something you had no control over?"  
  
"Sure," he answered.  
  
"Oh really? When?" She asked skeptically.  
  
"When I saw what Major Bludd did to you in Jeddah," he calmly replied with a flash of anguish in his eyes, "When I saw how goddamn close I was to losing you before I - It wasn't the same as seeing any of my other soldiers hurt on a mission and it scared the holy hell out of me." Now it was Scarlett's turn to look at him in surprise as his admission caught her slightly off guard. She still remembered Jeddah vividly, and how calm and collected he kept himself through her near demise - he knew her life depended on it.  
  
"I'm not going anywhere. You won't let that happen, remember?" Scarlett laid her head on Duke's shoulder and stroked the top of his hand with hers then looked back up into his piercing blues. "Sing "Layla" for me again, the way you did in the club," she requested. Duke smiled and softly sang into her ear:  
  
"What'll you do when you get lonely  
  
And nobody's waiting by your side?  
  
You've been running and hiding much too long.  
  
You know it's just your foolish pride.  
  
Shana, you've got me on my knees.  
  
Shana, I'm begging, darling please.  
  
Shana, darling won't you ease my worried mind."  
  
Several hours later they were back home at headquarters.  
  
******************* 


	9. MASS Epilogue

Author note: This takes place at the end of MASS, with lots of flashbacks, because I was too lazy to devote entire chapters to them, lol. Thanks Slayne22 for bait-a-ing:)

At last, Scarlett had been rescued from Cobra by her fearless leader, Duke, and the Joes successfully destroyed Cobra's MASS device. She would finally get to go home soon, back at headquarters with Duke, who was more to her than merely a fearless leader, but quite possibly the great love of her life. She had started to believe that this day would never come and the fact that it actually happened was a miracle indeed. The Counter-Intelligence agent feared that the possibility of resolving the issues between her and the C.O. might be asking for too many miracles. She longed for the days when their relationship had the ease of living-in-the-moment quality to it.

_The days before that incident between Duke and Major Bludd._

Scarlett shuddered remembering the incident. Her relationship with Duke was fairly new, and so was his memory of what Major Bludd had recently done to her in Jeddah. During that mission to take back the Embassy from Cobra, Bludd had managed to capture Scarlett, beat her, then tied her up in a locked room with a bomb strapped to her chest, intending to kill her and blow up the Embassy. In the moments closing in on her intended demise Duke had managed to find her, break down the door, and dispose of the bomb. Still in the moment of having faced certain death, Scarlett had finally surrendered herself to her first kiss with her rescuer.

It was only after their relationship had grown deeper and more intimate that Duke had come face to face with Major Bludd again. Overwhelmed by his intense hatred and desire to exact revenge for Scarlett, Duke overpowered Bludd with unnecessary force, even after Bludd's right forearm had been shattered and couldn't fight back anymore Duke slammed a rifle butt into Bludd's face, collapsing his left eye socket and resulting in permanent blindness in that eye. The eye patch Bludd now wore over that eye was a constant reminder of how Duke lost control because of his personal feelings. No doubt it was a constant reminder to Bludd as well, to fuel his own hatred. To Scarlett, it was a reminder of her broken heart. Fearful that he was compromising himself as an effective leader, Duke had promptly ended their relationship right after the Bludd incident. Their relationship had gotten too intense for him to keep a handle on his emotions. She had understood, but didn't like it. Her understanding didn't stop her from shedding countless tears over the situation either…

_(SMACK!)_

_Duke had seen her open hand coming towards his face, but chose not to block her slap. Scarlett had every right to be upset, and he knew he had it coming._

"_You started this thing!" Scarlett screamed at him._

"_I know," Duke solemnly replied._

"_From day one!"_

"_I know."_

_"It could be that way all of the time!" She yelled, reminding him of his smooth-talking back in Munich. "It could be better!" Her voice was now starting to crack, fighting the urge to sob uncontrollably._

"_I meant it at the time."_

"_Of course you did! At the time you were trying to get me into bed!"_

"_It wasn't like that and you know it."_

"_Do I? I'm not sure what I know anymore."_

"_I also told you that we could pull this off as long as we didn't let it interfere with our duties," Duke reminded her, "and I just broke that rule in a big way."_

"_So now you're going to break my heart instead, because you want to turn your feelings on and off like a light switch."_

"_It's not like that at all, Shana."_

"_Don't call me that. Don't ever call me that again. It's Scarlett or Sergeant O'Hara to you now."_

"_Scarlett…" Duke started to wrap his arms around her._

"_No! You can't have it both ways!" Scarlett broke free of his embrace, when all she wanted to do was stay there the rest of her life. "Look at you, we've only been broken up for five minutes and you already can't keep your hands off of me!"_

"_That's why we have to take a break," Duke gravely replied. Scarlett said nothing. The tears were already streaming down her face and she couldn't argue his point even if she could speak through the inevitable sobbing that was about to occur. She turned and walked away, flashing the palm of her hand in his direction as a warning not to follow her._

Scarlett had been right. Despite their supposed break up Duke couldn't help flirting shamelessly with her just as he had done in the beginning, nor could he keep his hands to himself. At least now there was finally another female in the women's barracks to help complicate Duke's occasional attempts at a secret rendezvous "for old times sake" with Scarlett. _"Come on, where's your spirit of adventure?"_ was a line he unsuccessfully used more than once to try to persuade her to sneak out to meet with him. She was actually relieved to have Cover Girl around. She wasn't so sure she would be able to resist him without Cover Girl's presence inadvertently helping her.

Of course there had been the time, very recently, that she had not only given in, but had initiated it herself…

_Scarlett lay awake in her tent, unable to relax let alone sleep. It was far too damn cold for her, shivering despite her thermals underneath her BDU's. Camping out in the Alaskan snow tended to have that effect. She could think of a few interesting ways to warm herself up. Duke always knew how to do that for her, damn him. She missed Duke and how he felt, and how he made her feel. The idea of sneaking into his tent flashed through her mind. Just for old time's sake – not that it had actually been very long. But it would be a pleasant escape from the freezing reality around her. Why did it have to look desperate on her part to do so? Hadn't their relationship been just a convenience for him anyway? Well now it would be convenient for her to take her mind off of the cold weather and being out in nowhere. It would be convenient to feel him one more time. Very convenient. He wouldn't say no to her, after all the man couldn't keep his hands off of her. And she knew how to push his buttons. _

_When the soldier on guard duty wasn't looking her way, she snuck out of her tent and crept over to Duke's tent, covering her snow tracks along the way, and let herself in. She watched him sleep as she quietly peeled off her coat and pulled her boots off then carefully unzipped his sleeping bag. He didn't jar awake until she was sliding into his sleeping bag. Before he had a chance to speak, she covered her hand over his mouth and stared intently into his piercing blues. _

"_Wanna get warm, soldier?" She asked in a husky tone. His eyes widened in response then she brought her lips next to his ear._

"_I missed you, Duke," she seductively whispered into his ear as she climbed on top of him, pressing her breasts against his chest and slowly grinding her hips intimately against his. She got the physical reaction she wanted and expected from him. It gave her a sense of power to watch him at her mercy, closing his eyes and groaning into her hand, his hands clutching her thighs as he hardened beneath her. That fact that she could make the big bad C.O. so weak and desperate for her thrilled her and gave her a sense of satisfaction._

"_Fuck me, Conrad," she softly pleaded into his ear. "You want it too. Now bring it home big boy." She pulled her hand away from his mouth._

"_Come here gorgeous," he groaned as he grabbed a handful of her thick red mane and pulled her mouth over his, kissing her with fervor. She yanked his shirt out from his pants waist and slid her hands underneath, grazing her fingertips across his large pecs. She loved how they felt, so massive and powerful underneath her delicate hands. His free hand slid underneath the backside of her thermal top, firmly running his hand along her back then moving over to the front, sliding underneath her bra. _

"_That's not nice," she gasped in pleasure._

"_You want nice?" He groaned into her ear._

"_No." _

_He pressed her even closer to him and kissed her furiously while the ecstasy of it all overwhelmed her quickly. She moaned and dug her nails into him as she lost herself in the raw passion. It had all been so primal and urgent…_

And when they got back to headquarters, the new SkyStrikers were waiting for them!

Scarlett was still mad that her customized SkyStriker was destroyed in that Cobra sneak attack. She only got to fly it once. But what a test flight that was! She had nearly scared the tar out of Duke – and poor Stalker and Snakes – with her daring maneuver skimming right over their heads on the runway. Outdoing each other's piloting skills had been an ongoing game with them, and someday she would get Duke to concede that her piloting skills exceeded his. Seeing him nearly blow a gasket over that incident still made her chuckle. Taunting him about it was just too irresistible.

"_Oh come on, Duke! Where's your spirit of adventure?"_

Scarlett swore her heart stopped when Duke had been captured by Cobra. The reality that she may never see him again shook her to the core. She'd wondered if it was a wake-up call for him too. If not when he was held captive, then what about during her own capture? How could he not feel that same helplessness and vulnerability that she had felt

during his captivity? He knew that realistically he may never see her alive again. Did this change his perspective of their relationship situation as it had done her, or did he survive unaffected? She felt a stronger resolve to rebuild their relationship. Life was too short not to try.

_Did he feel the same? She wondered countless times._

Was it really necessary for that pesky slave girl to hang around, Scarlett wondered as she watched in disbelief and quietly seethed as the young slave girl continued to hang on Duke's arm. Didn't she get the hint when she pulled the girl off of him after planting that kiss on him? Apparently not, since Duke did nothing to discourage the girl. In this case inaction was speaking louder than words. Why was he putting her through this? Wasn't she enough for him? Scarlett pulled him aside to talk to him privately.

"You're just going to let her throw herself at you and make me watch?" Scarlett asked him in disbelief. "And that kiss!"

"What kiss? She caught me by surprise. You saw, I had my eyes open; I didn't even want it," Duke smoothly explained. Scarlett said nothing. "Aw, don't tell me you're actually threatened by her?" Duke taunted her. Damn he's good, the bastard, Scarlett huffed to herself. He knew exactly how to push her buttons. Threatened by some skanky little slave girl? What a joke! Didn't he know that the threat wasn't with the girl, but in his power over her heart?

"Don't be jealous, sweetheart," Duke whispered into her ear, rubbing his thumb along her cheek. "She has nothing on you." He's got that right, she thought.

"I'm not jealous," Scarlett protested.

"That's my girl."

With Selena still on Duke's arm and not going anywhere, Scarlett hung on his other arm or at least remained planted right by his side as if she were staking her claim, then as this continued back at Joe headquarters it occurred to her that she was making a fool of herself – in front of everybody. The anger and resentment welled up inside her as she looked at the situation before her and how desperate and pathetic she must look to everyone watching. She would never allow anybody to humiliate her so. So why did she make an exception for him? Who did he think he was anyway? How did he have such power over her that she would allow herself to be degraded so? She'd almost rather still be held captive at Cobra! Perhaps his capture didn't have the same effect on him as it did on her. Finally she decided that enough was enough. While everybody, namely Duke, was celebrating victory over Cobra and the destruction of their MASS device, Scarlett used the distraction to slip out of the control room. Cover Girl followed her.

"It's that slave girl, isn't it?" Cover Girl asked her in the privacy of the deserted hallway.

"What makes you say that?" Scarlett asked defensively.

"I'm blonde, not blind," Cover Girl retorted. Scarlett looked away. She felt a little ashamed for underestimating Cover Girl's perceptiveness.

"Look, it's all very complicated - ," Scarlett tried to explain.

"Well I know of one complication around here I'd like to eliminate!" Cover Girl huffed, motioning towards the slave girl.

"Why?" Scarlett asked suspiciously.

"Because I like you, and I don't want to see you like this. I do have to live with you, you know. And don't get me started about how grumpy our C.O. is when you're not breaking him off - ."

"Corporal Krieger!" Scarlett started to reprimand while her face turned eight shades of red.

"Psshh, you can give me that 'Corporal' business all day long, but at the end of the day we're both still two women. And for now, two is all we need around here. I mean she's not even a Joe! What is she even doing here in the first place!" Cover Girl was getting huffed again.

"Probably for my benefit," Scarlett answered sarcastically.

"Well then sister, you're about to lose your benefit!" Cover Girl turned and started walking away.

"No! Wait! Cover Girl!"

"Buh-bye!"

Cover Girl didn't even look back at her as she walked away…

"Where are you taking me?" the young slave girl timidly asked Cover Girl. The corporal had retrieved the slave girl under the pretense of paperwork processing.

"Home, where you belong." Cover Girl coldly answered as she continued to whisk her down the hall.

"I do not even get to say goodbye to Duke?"

"Over my dead body," Cover Girl coldly declared without breaking pace and as they continued walking callously lectured to her, "What did you think would happen? That you were going to have a – relationship – with him just because you threw yourself at him? Well think again kid, you have a lot to learn. And frankly, I've grown bored with watching some lovesick slave girl behave so shamelessly. You've overstayed your welcome. Consider yourself dismissed." She then passed the ex-slave off on a Greenie to take her off base with the rest of her people. Scarlett witnessed Cover Girl's entire scheme.

As soon as Selena and her escort were out of sight Scarlett leaned back against the wall then sank to the floor, holding her head in her hands as she took in what just happened. Truth be told, the slave girl wasn't the only one acting "lovesick," she admitted to herself. She was acting jealous and insecure and seeing this side of herself sickened her, then she cursed herself for allowing Duke to bring it out in her. He would probably be angry at her for the stunt that was just pulled but she didn't care. She had to salvage her dignity. She would deal with him next, and she promised herself she wouldn't cry.

Scarlett snuck back into the control room, blending in with a group of Joes in conversation. As she talked to Stalker she took notice of Duke's baffled expression just a few yards away. He was glancing around the room as if he had lost something. His women perhaps? She excused herself from Stalker to approach Duke. Show time.

"Problem?" she asked him spitefully.

"I can't seem to find Selena," Duke answered, scratching his chin. "Have you seen her?"

"No," Scarlett coldly replied. "What's the matter, do you need help keeping tabs on your harem?" She turned to leave but was cut short by Duke's grasp on her arm.

"I thought you weren't jealous," Duke challenged her.

"Fuck you, I'm not jealous. I think your command position has gone to your head, Sergeant," she hissed at him then walked away while their spat could still avoid an audience. Without looking back, she walked hurriedly back to her quarters.

The first order of business was to draw a hot bubble bath. She had longed for one since her capture – well, that among other yearnings as well. This wasn't exactly the happy homecoming she had imagined. Why did they have to fight today of all days? Why did he have to be such a jerk? She lamented to herself as she attempted to soak her troubles away. The water was almost too hot to bear. Good. Maybe it would burn off any last remnants of Cobra on her skin. She swore that she could still smell the slave pens on her even after they had returned to base. She slid down further into the tub to dip her head under the water then came back up, her hair now soaked and laying flat against her. The hot water helped the tension in her muscles and she started to relax. She could fall asleep right there, and almost did. She couldn't believe how exhausted she was from her ordeal. She laid her head back and closed her eyes.

"If you fall asleep and drown who's going to love me like you do?"

Scarlett let out a shriek as her eyes flew open and she sat up straight at the sound of the intruder's voice. So much for relaxed muscles. Her heart was racing and her adrenaline was already coursing through her. "Duke!" she yelled at him, "What are you doing here! You scared the holy hell out of me!"

"Sorry. I was worried because you didn't answer the door so I used my passkey to make sure you were okay," Duke explained. "And you didn't answer my question."

"Liar," Scarlett scoffed, "and who says I love you anyway?" She tried unsuccessfully to throw a handful of bubbles at him. Duke chuckled at her in amusement. "Shut up," she muttered.

"Care to come out of that tub and make me?" He asked, raising a blond eyebrow at her.

"I may as well. I got in here to relax but now that's shot to hell," she grumbled as she started to stand up. Duke wrapped a towel around her as she stepped out of the tub, slipping her into an embrace as he helped her. She shrugged away, though what she really wanted to do was stay and take it further, to the homecoming she had been looking forward to. She loved the feeling of his big strong arms around her. It made her feel safe. She reminded herself that she was mad at him.

"I have to get my robe," she said as she slid out from his embrace. Duke gazed at her as she put her bathrobe on and tied the sash around her waist then proceeded to use her towel to blot dry her hair. He walked up to her from behind and slid his arms around her waist, pulling her close to him.

"Isn't it a little late to be playing hard-to-get?" he asked sultrily into her ear. "I want to do bad things to you." The way he said "bad" in that naughty tone of his always gave her goose bumps and he knew it. Dammit. He spun her around to face him. His deep blues were staring into hers now. She wanted to melt. How does he do that, she wondered as she tried to resist his charm.

"Who needs to play hard-to-get when you have girls perfectly willing to throw it at you?" Scarlett sternly replied. A slow smile crept on his lips.

"Because I throw it right back," he answered.

"Yeah you did a great job of that while you were NOT fighting that girl off nor doing anything to discourage her," said Scarlett sarcastically. "And I hate you for rubbing my nose in it the entire time."

"You don't hate me," he told her as he ran his hand along her damp hair. "You love me."

"I do not!" She protested, as she wondered why he was taunting her like that, "Especially not after what you pulled!"

"Well I love you, despite the stunt YOU pulled," he told her. Scarlett froze. Did he just say the "L" word? It had rolled off his tongue so smoothly she was sure she didn't hear right.

"What?" she asked hesitantly.

"I said I know about you getting rid of the slave girl when I wasn't looking," he taunted her then leaned down to speak into her ear. "I said, I love you."

"Is this your ace up your sleeve to get you out of the dog house?" she asked softly, desperately hoping that her accusation was wrong. He tilted her chin up to look into her eyes.

"Only if you want it to be," he said then ran his hand through her damp hair and leaned down to kiss her, and she could feel herself starting to cave in. She instinctively snaked her arms around his neck to pull him even closer to her as their kiss grew more passionate. He moved his other hand that had been resting behind her to her front side as he untied her sash and parted her robe open. He slid his hand over her bare skin, caressing her and pressing her closer to him. She let out a soft sigh as she basked in the pleasure of his touch. His caress. His everything. He then wrapped his arms around her waist tightly and lifted her up a foot off the ground. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her from the bathroom to her bed.

"Say it," he said huskily as his lips teased hers.

"I love you too," she tenderly replied.

She had it all. She was home, and he loved her.


End file.
